Roll back the clock 10 years, and the Internet wasn’t really a competitive space. Today, though, you’ll find yourself vying with around 24 million other e-commerce businesses around the world, and that’s something that requires a lot of work!
The good news is that you can get ahead, and this is by using effective SEO techniques to boost your marketing efforts. So, let’s not waste any more time…
Should you use an SEO company or handle everything in-house?
Before we take a look at the best SEO tips to take your marketing efforts to new heights, we first need to establish how you should go about this. Should you get your in-house team to take care of your SEO efforts or is it better to work with an expert company?
There’s no right or wrong answer. It all comes down to you and the resources you have within your company. If you have a team that’s experienced in the world of marketing and has the high-level skills needed to devise an exceptional marketing campaign, by all means, stick with your in-house personnel.
However, as you’re already looking for answers, there’s a high chance that teaming up with an SEO company is going to make much more sense.
The best SEO companies in London live and breathe SEO. They’re ahead of every trend and every Google algorithm. They have excellent contacts, and they can get your campaign running a lot quicker too.
SEO tips to boost your marketing strategy
Now that we’ve discussed whether you should be handling your SEO efforts yourself, let’s explore some of the best SEO tactics that are assured to boost your marketing efforts.
1) Demonstrate social proof, especially for high-ticket items
There’s only one place to begin when it comes to enhancing your SEO efforts, and this is by making the most of social proof.
Social proof is more important than it ever has been because it involves other people vouching for your products and services.
As consumers, we’ve become increasingly skeptical. We don’t simply believe what businesses tell us. After all, no business is going to paint their products in a bad light, right?
This is where social proof comes in. When we see a review from another customer or an image on social media of them using a product we’re interested in, it gives us confidence!
This is especially important if you’re marketing high-ticket products. After all, if you’re asking customers to spend a considerable amount of money, it’s only natural that they’ll want to see if others have been happy with their purchase first.
2) Target relevant primary and secondary keywords
Of course, we cannot talk about SEO without mentioning keywords. They’re the backbone of any good strategy!
However, there’s an art to effective keyword use. Not only do you need to select keywords carefully but you need to know how to use them properly too! They should be incorporated so naturally that no one would be able to know they’re keywords.
But first, how do you select the right keywords for your campaign?
Well, you need to start by selecting your primary keywords, which are the main terms you want to rank for.
Next, select your secondary keywords, which support your primary keywords. These are related terms that will cover your topic in more detail.
Primary keywords tend to have high search volumes, for example, “lifestyle marketing.” You can then choose secondary keywords that are related and easier to rank for, for example:
- “Lifestyle marketer”
- “What is lifestyle marketing?”
- “Lifestyle marketing strategies”
Use a keyword research tool to make this process a lot easier, helping you to find the perfect short- and long-tail keywords for your campaign.
3) Demonstrate E-E-A-T
You’re probably wondering what on earth E-E-A-T means?! No, we’re not encouraging you to go and grab some dinner. E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
So, why do we group these big words together? Well, it’s simple; they’re not direct ranking factors BUT they are very, very important.
Google constantly makes a dedicated effort to provide searchers with credible, high-quality content. So, if you want your content to rank, demonstrating E-E-A-T is a must.
Here are some of the best ways of doing so:
- Link to other relevant, high-quality pieces of content, which showcase your depth and breadth of knowledge on the topic.
- Add links from your website to your certifications, credentials, awards, or social media accounts, all of which will indicate your authority and expertise in the industry.
- Link to reliable and reputable sources that back up your data, arguments, and claims.
- Add author bios for all of your content, highlighting the author’s credentials, expertise, and experience.
4) Uncover zombie pages and remove them
It’s time to dig into your website analytics now! Most websites have pages that don’t get a lot of traffic. Google may have indexed them, but they’re simply not attracting any views from real visitors. These are known as “zombie pages” and you need to get rid of them!
Why? Well, zombie pages have a negative impact on the user experience, confuse site structure, dilute authority, and waste crawl budget.
To put it simply: Zombie pages hurt your SEO.
Some common examples include:
- Orphan pages, i.e. pages that don’t have any internal links pointing to them
- Pages with technical issues, i.e. crawl errors, broken scripts, or slow loading speed
- Unoptimised pages, i.e. those missing headings, meta descriptions, titles, etc.
- Pages with thin, duplicate, irrelevant, or outdated content
- Pages with poor UX, i.e. those that aren’t user-friendly or mobile-friendly
To find these pages, simply open up Google Analytics. From there, head to Reports, then Life Cycle, Engagement, and finally Pages and Screens. From here, you should have no trouble finding pages with no or low traffic, conversions, or engagement.
Once you’ve found your zombie pages, you have two options:
- You can update these pages, fixing the errors mentioned above, and ensuring the content is fresh and relevant
- You can remove the pages permanently, redirecting the URL to a related page
5) Build topic clusters
If you’re not making the most of topic clusters, now is the time to do so. Topic clusters are groups of web pages that cover a broad topic and relatable subtopics. They help you in covering a broad subject in-depth and establish your authority with users and search engines.
There are two main elements your topic cluster needs to have:
- A pillar page – This should cover your main topic and link to all of the subtopic pages.
- Cluster pages – These should cover specific subtopics that relate to the main topic, linking back to the pillar page.
You can follow these steps to create your topic clusters effectively:
- Start off by choosing a core topic that’s relevant and vital for your brand and audience.
- Perform keyword research to find great subtopics and related keywords for your cluster pages.
- Next, create a pillar page that gives a broad overview of the core topic and links to your cluster pages.
- Finally, create cluster pages that cover specific subtopics in detail and link back to the pillar page.
6) Add a FAQ section to your articles
Last but not least, it’s a good idea to add FAQs to your articles using the ‘People Also Ask’ section on Google for inspiration.
Image source = Screenshot
Questions like this are valuable because they only require a few sentences to answer, they’re relatively easy to rank for, and they’re questions people actually search for.
This is why adding a FAQ section to your article is one of the best things you can do to increase its search visibility.
It’s really easy to do this too. All you need to do is search your keyphrase on Google, you can then head to the People Also Ask section to find out what people are searching related to your keyword. Easy peasy!
Boost your marketing strategy with these SEO tips!
So there you have it: some top SEO tips to help you take your marketing strategy to the next level. Don’t forget; if you don’t have an in-house SEO team, there are lots of great SEO agencies out there that can take care of this side of your business for you. This will enable you to focus on what you do best while the experts handle boosting your online visibility.
